This is the first in a continuing series of weekend itineraries for those considering a golf community home in the southeastern U.S. If you would like us to develop a customized itinerary for you, please contact the editor.

        No one southeastern city attracts more interest at our golf homes listing site than does Greenville, a sophisticated upstate South Carolina town whose economy took a lasting shot in the arm in 1994 with the opening of BMW's North American manufacturing plant in nearby Spartanburg. With an excellent regional airport, a bustling cultural scene anchored by the Peace Center in the city, good restaurants, higher-education options like Furman University, and a wide range of golf communities ringing the city –- and one excellent one with two top-notch golf courses inside the city limits –- Greenville deserves the attention it receives from those looking for the best combination of real estate and lifestyle.

        Thursday afternoon: Assuming you are flying into Greenville/Spartanburg International airport -– flights arrive directly from 18 other airports –- pick up your clubs and bags, head to the car rental counter before proceeding to your hotel (plenty to choose among, contact us if you need a recommendation). Unwind from your flight with a stroll through downtown Greenville and along the Reedy River, debate over a craft beer or cocktail at Larkins on the River whether native son "Shoeless" Joe Jackson got a bum deal in the 1919 Black Sox scandal aftermath, and then stick around for dinner (or head to any of the other good choices within walking distance). Return to your hotel to rest up for your remaining three big days.

Gary Player's course for The Cliffs at Mountain Park features acres of strategically placed
sand.  The Black Knight's golf design firm is located just off the course.

        Friday: After breakfast, head toward the Cliffs at Mountain Park, a still developing high-end golf community where Gary Player has built a home and relocated his golf architecture design firm. Tour the evolving community with our local expert, Wanda Reed, who once worked for The Cliffs, and then tackle the unique Mountain Park golf course, where the Black Knight, Mr. Player's nickname, has used bedeviling starkly white bunkers to trap slightly errant golf balls. For a bit of a splurge, consider a drink and dinner at Hotel Domestique's Restaurant 17, adjacent to nearby Cliffs Valley; we especially like the sound of the Braised Short Ribs with Anson Mills brown rice, smoked onion peanut miso, Asian greens and braised daikon.

        Saturday: The fresh air and elevation at Mountain Park helped you sleep soundly. That's good, because a long day awaits even though it begins with a short drive to the eclectic community of Green Valley. Unlike Mountain Park, where golf and real estate are superintended by the same development company, Green Valley is more a neighborhood that just happens to have a golf course adjacent to it. Homes run the gamut from small, tidy, old and relatively inexpensive to mansion-like, and priced that way. The Tom Jackson layout echoes the classics; Michael Kaplan, a local industrialist, purchased the club a few years ago and has thrown his heart and soul –- and a few million dollars –- into building a world-class private country club. After spending 18 holes with Kaplan, we are confident he has a good shot at it.

The par 3 3rd hole at Green Valley shows designer Tom Jackson's desire to create a classic
looking one-shot hole which reward a straight tee shot and punishes a slightly errant one.

        Sunday: Start your day with a tour of the Pebble Creek community in Taylors, which puts you back close to the airport for your return flight. Pebble Creek spells economy all around –- in the prices of homes that span condos to larger single-families, the cheap cost to join two golf courses, and the relatively lower cost of living compared with your current northern lifestyle. Golf course designer Tom Jackson lives in the community, a telling sign that he is proud of the golf courses he fashioned there. If time permits, play on one of its two 18-hole golf courses (one public, one private, both available to members), possibly with club owner Lyn Young, a veteran golf club operator in the southeast.

        If you can extend your visit by a day, we encourage a visit to Greenville Country Club, actually two golf clubs under one membership but separated by about three miles inside the city limits. The Chanticleer course, typically ranked in the top five of all courses in South Carolina, is magnificent and challenging and all about golf (no pool and tennis), surrounded mostly by homes priced beginning in the high six-figures. The Riverside course, redone totally about six years ago, is the more popular among members for its classic, Seth-Raynor-like routing and the expansive clubhouse and extra amenities for the entire family. Other golf community choices in the area include two Cliffs Communities -– Cliffs at Glassy and Cliffs Valley –- both among the most established Cliffs communities and offering among the lowest home prices of the group; and Thornblade Club in nearby Greer, with a Tom Fazio that is lovingly maintained by its members.

Pebble Creek features two 18 hole golf courses by Tom Jackson, who lives in the community.  
The dogleg par 4 13th promotes a risk/reward tee ball over a large pond on the private
Linkside layout.  The Creekside golf course is open to the public; members can play both
layouts for zero green fees, and the initiation fees and dues are quite reasonably priced --
as is the surrounding real estate.

Total Travel Time Among Communities: 1½ hours
Click here for map

Cliffs at Mountain Park
Home sites from $170,000
Homes from $390,000 (townhome) and $1 million (single family)
18 holes by Gary Player

Green Valley
Home sites limited
Homes from $499,000
18 holes by Tom Jackson

Pebble Creek
Home sites limited
Town homes from $140,000
Single-family homes from $165,000
36 holes by Tom Jackson

Greenville Country Club
Home sites limited
Town homes from $399,900
Single-family homes from $439,000
36 holes by R. T. Jones and W. Langford/B. Silva

Cliffs at Glassy
Home sites from $69,000
Homes from $425,000
18 holes by Tom Jackson

Cliffs Valley
Home sites from $199,900
Homes from $549,000
18 holes by Ben Wright

Thornblade Club
Home sites limited
Homes from $490,000
18 holes by Tom Fazio

If you are interested in exploring Greenville or any other golf-community-rich area of the South, please contact us for assistance.

     We happened upon a couple of lists recently that were both titled, more or less, "Worst states for retirees." The two lists –- from MoneyRates.com and TopRetirements.com -– used entirely different methodologies but were awfully consistent in their results. Half of the states in each top 10 list were the same –- Illinois, New York, Massachusetts, Ohio and Rhode Island. But more to the point, virtually all the states that made the list were northern states; just California and Nevada, which appear only on the Top Retirements list, are not classic cold winter weather northern states.

Owls Nest, a fine golf and ski resort in New Hampshire, could be one of many reasons state residents say they would never move to another state.

     It is getting more and more popular for people to bash states north of the Mason-Dixon line as expensive, crowded and increasingly inhospitable in a number of ways. Indeed, my hometown newspaper, the Hartford Courant, has been fielding animated letters to the editor ever since they posted the results of a Gallup survey indicating almost half (49%) of Connecticut residents would rather live elsewhere, topped only by Illinois residents, exactly half of whom would cut and run from their state if given the chance. (Illinois is in the 4th position on the Money Rates list and the top dog -– i.e. "the worst" –- on the Top Retirements list; Connecticut ranks 9th on the Top Retirements list.)

     But lest we consider that the migration from north to south by baby boomers is either a reflection of antipathy toward the north and/or a strong preference for southern living, the Gallup poll found that the states with the highest percentage of residents who would not leave for another state were virtually all in....WAIT FOR IT... the North (except for Hawaii). Fewer than a quarter of those who live in Montana, Maine, Oregon and New Hampshire said they would leave their states if they had the chance.
     What does this all mean? For one thing, it seems to indicate that cost of living is not an indicator of happiness with a state. After all, Hawaii is about the most expensive state to live in the nation. And as Hartford Courant columnist Dan Haar wrote recently, "when we look at the actual numbers of people uprooting from Connecticut to other states, New York [on both worst-state lists] is by far the biggest destination. And get this news bulletin: They're not moving to low-cost Utica or Syracuse." New York City, certainly among the most expensive places to buy or rent a home, is the magnet.
     The lack of any southern state on either worst state list could reflect the fact that the southern states have so many recent transplants living there that people are straddling the fence until they have a few years of residence behind them before having an opinion. Or it could indicate native southerners don't have strong opinions about their states, one way or the other, or have no perception that other states are any better...or worse.
     Here at GolfCommunityReviews, we focus most of our attention on golf communities in the south. But if, for family reasons or regional loyalty or because you like playing golf wearing two gloves and a ski jacket, you prefer a golf community in, say New Hampshire, we have an app for that. Contact us and we can provide you with a few examples of fine golf communities north of the Mason-Dixon Line. But if you prefer to spend next winter wearing a golf shirt and, at worst, a light sweater on the golf course, we have dozens of suggestions for you.  Contact us.